Instructions Cricklers work like crosswords even though the words no longer physically cross. In a regular 2-dimensional crossword a letter can appear in two clues - one vertical and one horizontal. In a 3-D crossword, a letter can be in as many as three clues. In a crickler a letter may be linked into 2, 3, 4, or more clues - depending on the Challenge Level. This makes for some interesting puzzles.
Getting Started When you first start, you will see one or more red-colored squares. One of these squares will have a flashing cursor. These red squares always act in unison because they are 'linked'. When you type a letter, that letter will appears in all the red squares. Type in the whole word and you will see you have filled in letters in several other words. That is what is meant by letters being linked. In a regular crossword a letter in both a vertical and horizontal clue is physically linked -- i.e. it's the same letter. Linked letters in a crickler act as if they were the same letter even though they may appear in different places. Squares that have the flashing cursor and are not linked show white instead of red. Delete a letter (using Space, Delete or Backspace) and all the linked letters will be removed -- just as if you erased a letter in a crossword. To solve your first crickler, start with the easy clues, as you would in a regular crossword. When you get to the harder clues, many of the letters will already be filled in making the puzzle easier to complete. Use Enter, the arrow keys or the mouse to select the clue you want to work on. This is all you need to know to get started so give it a try ...
Additional Features When you mouse over a letter, all the letters linked to it show in cyan. This lets you explore where the links are. Letters in the current clue that are linked show in very pale cyan. The Right Mouse Button moves you to the other instance of a given letter. This is like switching between rows and columns in a traditional crossword. If there are three places where a letter is linked, clicking the right mouse button will cycle between them. Thus, if there are three letter B's linked together, repeatedly clicking will cycle between them all. Tab moves you to the next word. Shift-Tab moves you to the previous word. The Control key (when pressed without another key) moves you to the next empty square. Pressing up-arrow down-arrow moves you to the first empty square in the current clue. Shift-Enter moves you to the previous clue. If you want to delete a whole clue, use Shift-Delete. Locked letters (grayed) will not be deleted,
Control Box Settings: The All Caps switch may be turned off. This shows the answers correctly in upper and lower case irrespective if which case you use to enter them. When Vowels is turned on squares containing vowels show with a faint v, squares containing numbers show with a faint n, and squares containing symbols or punctuation show with a faint s. This makes the puzzle easier and a tad more interesting. Y is considered a vowel here. The Advanced switch lets you lock letters that you are sure are correct so they cannot be changed from other clues. This is covered below. Cricklers allow a wide variation in Challenge Level. You should pick a level that makes the puzzle hard enough to be a challenge but not too hard that you can't finish it. The appropriate level will depend on how well you know the topic of the puzzle. After you have selected a new Challenge level you need to hit Restart. Current Challenge Levels:
The "Cross Ratio" is the average number of clues a letter appears in. For a newspaper crossword the Cross Ratio is about 1.5. That means that about half the letters are at the intersection of a row and column (i.e. appear in two clues) and half are not (appear in only one clue). Most crosswords that focus on a particular theme have a much lower Cross Ratio - typically around 1.2 (very boring). Cricklers let change their Cross Ratio on-the-fly with values ranging from (1.0 - no crossing) to infinity. At the maximum, you type one E and all the E's in the puzzle appear.
Advanced Features: If you play at Medium Level or lower, correct answers (or letters) become locked when they are entered correctly. Locked letters are shown in gray and cannot be changed. At higher challenge levels automatic locking does not occur. However, if you set the Advanced switch on you can lock letters or words manually -- whether or not they are correct! This feature is very useful if you understand what you are doing but can be very confusing otherwise -- which is why is switched off by default. Use the Enter key to move from one clue to the next when you are reasonably sure you have the correct answer. This will lock the current clue and move to the next clue. You can lock individual letters using the Insert key or lock a whole clue by using Shift-Insert. The Delete key pressed once will unlock a locked letter and Shift-Delete will unlock a whole clue. If you Delete or Shift-Delete a second time you will delete the whole clue (note that letters locked in a different clue remain). If you delete a clue you can restore it again by entering Shift-Insert! If you want to change a letter that is locked because you locked it another clue, use the right mouse button to find out where it is locked -- then unlock it using Delete -- then use the right mouse button again to get back to where you were. If this is all too complicated just leave Advanced features turned off.
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